Car insurance - Avoid insuring with RCIB - Right Choice Insurance Brokers

Astronaughtwannabe

Amylea123 wrote: »

Hi I don't know if anyone can help me. If I explain my story then someone may be able to give me advice....


OK so my ex boyfriend and I bought a car, it was just a cheap runner, he had recently passed his test and couldn't get insured on his own policy due to a driving ban (before passing his test >:| ), so me (being stupid!) decided I would open a new policy and put myself as the main driver and him as the second then we could both use the car. The policy cost 1800 then went up to 2200 (when they call back etc) but he was so determined to get on the road he said he would pay the bigger half of the cost every month..... anyway... 4 months down the line we break up, I move back to my mums he stays in the house... obviously its too late to cancel the policy, so after looking at the cost I had to pay for the remainder of the policy, it was something over £1400, I didn't know what to do, neither of us had that kind of money, so I didn't inform that I wanted to cancel the policy as I knew they would take whatever there was in my bank, so I decided to cancel the direct debit...... now its 8 months after all this happened and im getting phonecalls and emails from a company called the insurance collections bureau, which I keep ignoring. Previous to all this I had a few stupid debts consolidated due to losing hours in work and things spiralling out of control, I have almost paid the full debts off, i want to start rebuilding credit but i cant when this policy is hanging over my head. Biggest regret of my life, tried to help somebody out and i get cheated on and left with a big bill. The way im thinking at the moment i would rather go to court and explain my full situation than pay any more money out to companies who rob people blind :@ (although i haven't got a court letter yet, letters would be going to exes address but he hasn't contacted to say whether any letters have come).


I hope this makes sense, apologies for spelling. Any advice is good advice at the moment

No good deed goes unpunished ;-)

If you consider the 'ignore' route the just make sure that your address is up to date so that you can counter any default CCJs.


Ignore is a tactic particularly when dealing with rogue companies that operate on the fringes of the law because they are the least likely to want to justify their actions before a court (they mostly rely on threats to get their pound of flesh) but be on guard just in case.

rudekid48

http://www.ombudsman-decisions.org.uk/viewPDF.aspx?FileID=81343


A good slap from the Ombudsman

jacqui59

I wish I had known about this site before now ...I also am having bother with RCIB just like you had

tin_tin2009

Checked price comparison websites and each of them stated that Right Choice would be the cheapest at around £645!
Dead pleased I paid them upfront and a msg popped up onscreen to wait for then to call to activate my insurance.

They called within a few minutes but as I was driving my hubby's car I wasn't able to answer so I cancelled the call and called them back when I got home.
I'm in Romford and the call centre is based in Romford too and am pretty sure I've seen were their offices are based.

Anyways, long story short, after a thorough interrogation, my premium went from £645 to £899 because it was a cat D car (which it isn't but mistakenly told them that lol!... Typical blonde I know 😂🙊)
Anyways, hubby text me during this process and told me I gave the wrong info so I told them I would call them back later to verify the information as I have no idea about all these cat A,B,C,D etc.... All I knew was we had seen a cat D car beforehand some I got confused with that.

Called them back to let them know it wasn't a cat D car and then they said the premium would still be £899 because I needed to provide proof of driving over the past few years as I've always been put down as a second driver and not the main insurer.
Hubby told me to immediately cancel with them as something seems really dodgy!

They said they would refund the money within 3-5 working days but I've not truth received any emails to verify this so I might just give them a call to see what's going on as I don't want to be stuck with a £45 admin fee!

My consultants name was David just to let you know.
After checking lots of insurers last night, again this company came out cheapest and when we were playing around with mileage to see if it made a difference to the cost of the insurance, the price with Right Choice STILL came up the same whilst every other company premium went up by a few hundred pounds!
That's when hubby confirmed this was definitely a dodgy company and demanded I give him their number to call them so he could force them to give the price stated as they were advertising falsely and breaching a lot of the fsa rules.
They were closed at that point but I'm definitely filing a complaint with the fsa as well today.

Please steer clear of them!!

rudekid48

Complaining to the fsa won't do you any good, the Food Standards Agency are not interested in insurance.

What you can do is raise a formal complaint to RCIB, they then have 8 weeks to respond. After 8 weeks - or sooner if they provide a final response - you can then escalate to the FOS (at no cost to you).

Lilac902

Absolutely ridiculous service - DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, INSURE WITH THIS COMPANY. They gave me an incorrect quote online, then I had to ring them to get the quote. I waited for over 30 min on a premium rate number only to be told the quote is incorrect and I'll be charged a lot more for the quote itself. After investing so much time in this, our of sheer exhaustion, I stupidly agreed to take out the insurance with them, only to get a string of calls and emails of one thing being wrong with my insurance. I would encourage everyone on this thread to contact the Financial Conduct Authority, and get this 'company' that lack any kind of professionalism or integrity closed down.

monty87

I have to say this is probably the worst service I have received in quite some time. Not only for the way the situation progressed but also in the way I was spoken to.

My car insurance was due for renewal, so on Sunday night as usual I ran quotes through the online comparison sites to find the best deal with most competitive price and service offering.

Considering insurance has gone up 9.5% in 2015 I was surprised to see the cost's being quoted but reassuringly Right Choice Insurance Brokers came up with the best price and offered the lowest excess with all the services I wanted. Not having heard of RCIB I did some 'googling' to look at some reviews and I have to say I was concerned and not impressed at what I was reading. Poor service, premiums increasing, not returning deposits... Following this I did some more searching for other policies but unfortunately nothing was quite as good as RCIB. Having seen the policy I had selected was underwritten by Liverpool Victoria it gave me a bit more hope and I though why not give it a go. I selected the quote, got transferred to their website, selected monthly payments and accepted the policy. I was then transferred to another page saying my policy wouldn't go live until I had received a call from an RCIB representative the following morning. Ok a little annoying if I needed the policy start immediately but not the end of the world...

On Monday morning I received a call from another broker not RCIB and once I had explained the situation they transferred me through to RCIB. This is where all the negativity started and RCIB lived up to their reputation.

Coincidentally we started by talking through everything I had selected on the policy: address, car type, claims & endorsements, mileage etc which was fine. Everything matched what I had input into the cost comparison site and the RCIB representative explained he had to go and 'double check' the details with the broker to re-confirm the price (naturally after reading the reviews the night before alarm bells began to ring). So five minutes later he comes back on the line and explains that they wouldn't be able to match my quote from last night and that it was going to increase from £670 to £890 a year. Hearing this I highlighted that I wasn't surprised this had happened. I explained I had read all the reviews online and this seems to happen to every potential customer they lure in. I said not to worry and to cancel my acceptance from Sunday night. He asked if I could hold the line whilst he went and had a conversation with his manager which I accepted. Another five minutes later and the representative is back on the phone. This time he explained he has been able to reduce the price back down from £890 to £720 a year. By this point we had been on the phone for 35 minutes and my patience was thinning. A said £720 would be fine and he began talking me through the fine print. We got to a point where he was just asking me if I would accept the policy but sneakily dropped in during the same sentence: " you accept we have reduced your annual policy cost by raising your compulsory excess from £200 to £850 and we have also increased your voluntary excess from £0 to £300. Do you accept the policy now"? I'm sure you can imagine my response. I said not to worry and to please cancel any provisional orders. He asked me why I wanted to cancel and I explained he basically lied to me and tried to trick me by only telling me at the last possible second they increased my total excess from £200 to £1150. He then proceeded to argue with me that I wouldn't find a cheaper policy anywhere else. Whislt ending the call he explained they would be holding my £170 deposit for 10 days whilst the order was cancelled. Naturally I advised him they couldn't do this as nothing was processed from the Sunday night and I hadn't accepted anything verbally in line with their terms. He then said it was my bank that was holding the money at which point I said was ending the call and would be speaking to my bank but I would be back in touch should any money be taken.

Having checked the bank this morning my deposit has been taken and I am furious.

Please do not even consider RCIB. I thought even after reading the reviews that I'm sure it was only people that had received poor service that would post on-line. That isn't the case. I haven't ever written a complain on-line but I am that outraged by the whole incident I wanted to try and offer my support to anyone considering a policy with them.

For reference Adrian Flux insurance did me a great deal. They don't appear on price comparison sites so you will have to go direct to their website but they ended up being cheaper than RCIB with more items and great service. Best of luck all!

DecemberRain

15 Dec 2015

Never ever consider Right Choice insurance broker for your car insurance. They always came up cheapest on the comparison site and at the last huddle, they would call you back to add more premium on your policy. If you need to contact them, it takes ages to get through to the correct person and they just keep passing you around.

I cancelled my policy just after a couple of days and it cost me nearly £200. An expensive lesson which I hope that everyone can avoid.

Mi_Ki

I got insurance from RCIB on the 3rd of November through your website. I was given a quote of 960 odd pounds. I tried to pay for the insurance online but my payment did not go through or so I thought. I got a call from the insurer that the quote online was incorrect for two reasons. One that online quotes make assumptions re quotes that are not correct. Something about an assumption about my DR10 (drink driving) and also that the date of purchase of my car was not recorded. I had put on the quote that I had not purchased the car yet. They however told me that the purchase date was left blank. They told me that their assumption was that I had the car since it was first bought in 1997, by the first buyer. It would mean that I had the car for 15 years. I had to pick my car up that day, so I let that point go. They quoted me 1300 pounds for the new quote. By this time they had taken the payment that I tried to pay online for the initial deposit. I asked for the deposit back. I was told that there would be cancellation charges and it would take several days for my refund. As mentioned before I had to pick my car up that day so I agreed to go with the new quote as I needed to pick my car up and did not want to drive with out insurance.

I wanted to pay the whole amount upfront, so I asked the agent if I could pay the deposit that day and pay the rest of the amount in the next couple of days. I was told that would be ok and the amount owing would be 907.63 pence. The agent told me that he would email me the paper work and with it there would be a credit agreement but I could ignore that. I called two days later to pay the rest of the amount and I was told that I would have to pay 923.00 (aprox). When I questioned why the higher amount, I was told that the credit agreement was in place so I now had to pay the new amount. I tried to explain to the agent that I was told that I had to only pay the amount agreed and was not willing to pay the higher amount. I think I questioned the 14 day cooling off period (although I am not sure whether I asked about this on this occasion or previously), but I was told that if I cancel my policy I would incur further charges. She told me that she would come back to me an hour, which she did. She said she had listened to the original conversation and apologised for the inconvenience. I paid that amount and then sent of the paper work as requested.

A few days later I got a call from the insurer that I had not submitted the paper work requested and if I did not do that my policy would be cancelled. I was confused so I asked for clarification. I was told that when taking the policy out I told them that I had no claims bonus for five years prior to my DR10 and I was required to provide paper work to prove my NCB. I told the agent that I was not told that when taking the policy out. His return response was if I failed to provide the evidence my policy would go up in price. I asked to speak to a manger about this and was put through a thoroughly rude and arrogant man. I was told by this man (Paul I think) that I would now have to pay ten pounds to prove that I was not lying. At which point I asked to be put through to the complaints department and was left o hold for a long time. The call was pass!d back to the original manger who told me that since no one was available I would get a call back. I did not get a call back, instead I got another email and several text messages threatening to cancel my policy should I fail to provide the paper work. I called the insurer again and was put through to the complaints department. I spoke to a Colin Sadler. He said he would look into this and came back to me. He eventually called me and told me that it was a misunderstanding and he was sorry for the inconvenience. I would not have to provide the NCB paper work but could I please provide them with a copy of my driving licence etc. I duly sent the paperwork requested and asked My Sadler for resolution for the rest of the issues. He told me that he would call me as soon as the issues were resolved as they did not want to loose me as a customer. He sent me his direct line number, on the 3rd of December, 01708 547019. I heard nothing more from them, assuming that all was ok. I did not get any feed back re the other issues and nor did I follow it up.

Now on the 12th of January I get a another email and a text message to say that if I did not send them the paper work that is pending, my policy would be cancelled. I am now throughly fed up with this insurer. Also I am currently away from the UK on urgent family matter. My mother is in hospital and I am with her to look after her.

I called Mr Sadler from abroad explaining that I had already sent the paper work requested and that I could not to do much from this end. I explained to him that I am so fed with them that I would like to lodge a formal complaint. I also told that I have come across several review websites where the reviews of RCIB are appalling. He did not seem to care about the negative reviews, however he assured me that he would see what he could do and would come back to me in 2 days.

I told him that could send me an email (he has my email address) or send me text on my UK number. I have so far heard nothing from them. My car is parked on the road. I have looked at the 3 documents that they have sent me, and their proposal form says that my excess is 999 pounds! again not something that I would have agreed to. The value of my car is listed as 1025. I did not get a call from Mr Sadler as promised, so I called from Pakistan again to confirm if my query had been looked into. I spoke to hi colleague Sam. I questioned the excess on the proposal form and her response was that it was a mistake on the proposal form and they routinely print the excess as 999 pounds. If I were to sign this form would it not mean that I agree to the excess and the value of my car. I wonder now if the quote given to me initially was based on the value of my car being 1025 pounds? I eventually got en email from Mr Sadler informing me that I had been granted an extension of 7 days. I had to courier my house keys from Pakistan in order for my daughter in law to have access to my house, to get the driving licence, so that a copy of it could be sent to RCIB, and for me to get the code from DVLA. The excess, the value of my car and the date of my DR10 were all incorrect on the proposal form, which were corrected n=by my daughter in law and sent to them (this is third time I have had to send them the paper work).

The paper work was duly sent to RCIB. I got an email the next day, when they received the paper work saying that the first page of the proposal was missing. I e-mailed them back asking them to check to paper work again. I then got a email from RCIB asking me to pay another 135 pounds as the DR10 date was incorrect. I had corrected the date on the form twice before, and they had lost the paper work. If I don't pay another 135 pounds, which they have informed me that they will debit from my account, using the card details that they already hold.

I am so angry that I am struggling to keep my temper in check, and unfortunately there is not much I can do while I am away. RCIB have made numerous mistakes so far, am I also to charge them 135 pounds for each time they have done so. That would more or less amount to the price of my policy. I am stuck between rock and a hard place. I am not in position to argue with them from this end so they have decided to take advantage of this fact and charge me more money. More over if they had not lost the paper work the first two times I would have challenged the extra payment then and there and perhaps cancelled my policy a long time a go an saved me the on going hassle.

I have lodged a formal complaint with them, Compare The Market and with Market Study (RCIB are their broker) and will take it up with the FSA when I return. If RCIB cancel the insurance my car will be left without insurance and this put me trouble with the traffic laws.

I will be posting my review online too on all the review sites that I have come across so far. I attach several links below that tell a similar story to mine. I wish I had a look at the reviews before hand. I also hope that no one else has to go through this sort of harassment that several other people and I have suffered.

I would like a satisfactory solution to my complaint and a full refund, in lieu of the harassment caused to me by RCIB, while I am abroad looking after my mother who is critically ill. The last thing I needed was the hassle from RCIB to add to distress and traumatic state of mind.

matis

They are big thief's ever charge you extra from there given price never ever go for it, gives you cheapest price to gain an advantage of cancellation or administration charges , please avoid this company